W&L Students Showcase Ideas of Tomorrow All students enrolled in a Winter Term entrepreneurship class participated in the Creative Showcase on April 4.

By Laura Lemon
April 22, 2024

For the inaugural Creative Showcase, Washington and Lee University students across all Winter Term entrepreneurship classes within the interdisciplinary Connolly Center for Entrepreneurship gathered April 4 at the Houston H. Harte Center for Teaching and Learning in Leyburn Library to display and pitch their ideas and new products. Ninety students from the Foundations of Entrepreneurship and Business, Entrepreneurship Field Consulting Experience and Entrepreneurship classes formed 26 teams, with ideas varying from board games to exterior city-design consulting to meal services to apps.

“Our focus for the showcase was for each student to hone their pitch by having to try and sell multiple attendees on their idea. Pitch once; see what works, what doesn’t and then go again … and again … and again,” said Jay Margalus, director of the Connolly Center and Johnson Professor of Entrepreneurship and Leadership. “I honestly think that was my favorite part of the whole thing — watching students get focused on their craft and iterating on their concepts in real time.”

Three winners rose to the top of the Creative Showcase for three different audiences. Learn more about the 2024 Creative Showcase winners:

Faculty Choice Award: Wardrobe Pro

Jacob Jackson ’24, Kate Lardner ’24 and Kevin Warren ’26 created Wardrobe Pro, an outfit-planning and recommendation app. The user starts by uploading photos — or searching online — of the clothes in their wardrobe, and then the app takes it from there.

“After that, you can explore,” said Warren. “We’ll figure out what style you like based on your activity; you can click on items; you can purchase items. Based on your own clothes and what your style is, we will create outfit recommendations for you for different occasions.”

The app comes with many different actions. There’s an explore page where you can search for items and shop as well. There’s also a space to see all of your clothes and categorize those into types – tops, pants, etc. – and build potential outfits.

“Finally, we have our calendar where you can track what you wear each day if you don’t want to repeat clothing items,” Warren said.

Warren is an engineering major and worked on the creation side of the app and is considering minoring in entrepreneurship to gain practice in presentation.

“I thought it was a really cool idea; I’ve never heard of it before,” he said. “I feel like it’s also super applicable to people in my own age group as well. We’re more targeting it toward college students and young professionals who have busy schedules and want to be more efficient with their time.”

Community Choice Award: DubDining

As student-athletes, Payton Haley ’27, Caroline Shimp ’27 and Morgan Smith ’26 understand the reality of juggling busy schedules. But with their app, DubDinning, which allows students to use an app to order ahead at made-to-order dining options on campus, they devised a way for food and meal plans to be one less thing they worry about.

“All three of us are student-athletes at W&L, so our idea came from the busy schedules we have and trying to get a meal in this window,” said Haley. “We wanted to create a service that gives students a to-go option while still using their meal plans. Knowing how busy students at W&L are, our goal is to give more access to a quick meal without going out of pocket.”’

Through the app, students can review their remaining swipes and money in their flex account. The user can then pick a dining service – Foodside, Tea House, Fireside, Hillel and Café 77 – and create an order.

Smith, a cognitive and behavioral science major with a minor in entrepreneurship, is a member of the women’s swim team. Haley and Shimp, who play on the women’s lacrosse and women’s basketball teams, respectively, are undeclared majors, but Haley intends to major in accounting and finance, and Shimp anticipates double majoring in journalism and politics.

“Our experiences on different sports teams and clubs have given us several opportunities to connect with people in all grades to see the need for a service like DubDining,” Haley said. “Through these experiences, we have taken away several lessons that helped us with our project, like working with a team toward a shared goal, working with people with different interests and communicating with faculty at W&L to gain insight on the possibilities of bringing this to life.”

Student Choice Award: Stinky Socks

The game, Stinky Socks, starts with all the players measuring their sock lengths, and the player with the longest socks gets to start. What if it is summertime, and there are no socks in sight? Then the player with the worst sock tan begins.

Before them are 21 cards face down called a “pile of socks.” For each player’s turn, they flip one card face up — each card is a different sock character — for all the players to see and read aloud the card’s name and matching partner.

“We have these different sock icons, and each little character has a corresponding match,” said Owen Murray ’24. “For example, the chips would match the salsa.”

When two pairs are revealed, the first player to grab those cards keeps them. If the player reveals a stinky sock card, they hold onto the card. In a future turn, they can place a stinky sock on an opponent’s matched sock pair to “stink it up”— making that pair not count. The game continues until all the pairs are matched; the player with the most pairs wins.

Perry Kramer ’24, Stephen Savage ’24, Avery Meyer ’24, and Jed Heald ’24 and Murray created Stinky Socks as a card game for kids ages 5 to 12.

“[We] wanted something pretty straightforward and simple that relied on one funny theme that kids would laugh about,” Murray said.

“It really homes in on their memory and reaction time,” he said. “So, it’s a game that helps them with those skills at a young age.”